


Wait for Me

by Vansunshine



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Astronauts, M/M, Mission Gone Wrong, Mission to the moon, Space Flight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29598918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vansunshine/pseuds/Vansunshine
Summary: Trip to the moon now out of the window, mission control’s new goal is to bring the crew of Poseidon 11 safely back to Earth.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Park Jisung
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	Wait for Me

**Author's Note:**

> This silly thing sparked from me watching apollo 13. I don't know much about NASA or about space and space flights but i wrote this anyway. if anything doesn't seem to make sense, that's prolly why,, those who like rensung and space fics, this is for you <3

A blackout. 

A communication blackout. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. Trip to the moon now out of the window, mission control’s new goal is to bring the crew of Poseidon 11 safely back to Earth. The module had glitched after the first night in space and with some of the panels blinking in and out of power, flight control had wisely called off the mission. NASA has never lost a man in space, and they’re not about to change history by losing three. 

Journeys back home are never easy it appears because after the glitching problems were rectified and everyone thought all that was left to do was wait, the gas levels in the module started acting up. The carbon dioxide in the command module was reaching toxic levels. Mission control had only just managed to instruct the crew how to build a filter to expel the gas out before the radio abruptly went dead. There’s no telling if the crew managed to build it successfully or if the gas had gotten the better of them. It’s been two grave minutes since the loss of radio contact. Renjun doesn’t think the chances are in their favour. He isn’t pessimistic, he’s realistic. He’s a man of math and numbers, he believes science is the backbone of every success man has ever had. Science never goes wrong. They haven’t been able to get science to explain why the module behaved unexpectedly yet, not until they get data and visuals of the craft, but if the numbers are matching up and the filter doesn’t pull through, the lives of the three aboard are about as good as gone. 

“Voyager. This is Houston, do you read?”

Renjun bites his lips. He’s antsy. He had woken up to a frantic call and sped all through the highway to reach as fast as he could. He had only just arrived in mission control center from the simulation room with the revamped re-entry procedure when the crew reported the rising carbon dioxide levels. He’s only been here for ten minutes but it feels like an hour with how much has happened. There’s so much anxiety brewing through the room, thick in the air, and Renjun is nothing if not susceptible to it. He feels suffocated with worry.

“Voyager, Houston. Do you read me?”

Renjun glances at Donghyuck, observes the hard lines of his face, the hope fading from his eyes. It’s reached three minutes of no contact and it’s nothing but unnerving to have your crew flying blind. Donghyuck covers his face with his hands dejectedly, and falls slumped into his seat. When he pulls his hands away, Renjun sees the face of a surrendered man.

Which isn’t right. As the director of flight operations, this isn’t the way to act around everyone here, no matter how helpless the situation, because every single person here is trying so hard to bring three of their men home. Fear gets the best of them but fear, too, is a powerful force that motivates the weakest of man. 

Renjun stands without thinking. He yanks Sungchan’s headset off of him and fixes it on himself. He’s acting rashly and it startles everyone else, but it’s not like he doesn’t have any rights to be here. He trained with Poseidon 11. No one says a word to him. 

“Voyager, this is Houston. Do you read me?” He speaks earnestly into the mic, staring at the blank screen where the numbers of the spacecraft operations should be. “Voyager, I repeat, if you hear this, please copy.”

He gets nothing. Just silence, heavy and depressing. 

“Voyager,” he swallows. His throat is dry, his voice is cracking but he doesn’t yield. He’s close to begging, like a fool, but what good would that do? Breaking down in mission control center would be extremely unprofessional and useless. Only science and numbers do miracles here. The only thing he can do is hope, because he’s only human after all, and he’s desperate. Everyone here is. 

“Voyager, Houston. _Do you read me_?”

“Flight, three minutes and thirty seconds of no contact. Awaiting response,” Jaemin announces.

Renjun stares down at the table. This can’t be how it ends.

“Fuck,” Donghyuck mutters, hands clasped together in front of his mouth. He presses them against his lips. “Come on, Jeno. You can pull through this.”

Renjun breathes in and hears how his breath trembles. He gets dizzy thinking about the silence lasting forever. 

“This is Houston,” he repeats as firmly as he can, hiding the frenzy and fury in his voice. He blinks back the burn behind his eyes and grips the table as he stares hard at its white surface. He punctuates through a thick throat. “Do you read me, Voyager? 11, do you copy? Are you there?”

Please. _Please_.

Static crackles through his headset. He snaps his head up from the table to the huge screen. The screen fuzzes and blinks. He leans his body weight against the table and watches the screen anxiously. Numbers flicker back into view on the screen and the vacant feeling growing in his chest gets flushed over with a wave of warmth.

His heart pumps madly. “Voyager, this is Houston. Do you read?”

“Huang, is that you in mission control?” Jeno’s amused voice cuts through the static. “We read you, Houston. This is Voyager, reporting in after a sudden blackout.”

Relief floods through the whole room. Everyone erupts into motion and noise from sudden stillness. Renjun senses Donghyuck sitting straighter and getting himself together from the corner of his eyes.

“I got woken up in the dead of the night because apparently, you guys can’t fly without me,” Renjun remarks, breathless. His knees are shaking but he’s never been more relieved. “I’ve been working on your re-entry procedure before your CO2 trouble happened.”

Jeno hums. “It’s a good thing you’re not on this flight with us then, Huang. Would have trouble re-entering Earth without you down there.”

Renjun scoffs lightly but he’s not completely at ease despite Voyager emerging from radio silence. They’ve only heard Jeno’s voice so far and he can only assume the other two are okay. But a man of science never assumes and a desperate man never believes without confirmation. He waits to hear the other voices on the spacecraft. They don't come. He worries.

“Lee, how is Ji-”

“11, what’s the report?” Donghyuck’s voice pierces through the channel. “How are your carbon dioxide levels?”

Renjun stutters into silence. He closes his eyes and regrets almost acting foolishly. _Don’t bring your emotions to work, Huang. You’re better than this. You have to stop thinking with your heart._

“CO2 levels are decreasing as we speak. Filter works. There was a loud bang from Voyager’s service module that led to the radio silence but that seems about the only impact. Took us a while but Chenle got the power for communication to be up and running again.”

On Sungchan’s right, Yangyang frowns at his monitor. He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Zhong’s heart rate is skyrocketing. Is he okay?” 

“Just adrenaline, surg.” Chenle chuckles through the radio but it sounds weighted, like he’s been through an ordeal. They probably thought they were as good as dead during the three and a half minutes of blackout. Flying blind without mission control might as well be suicide. “I’ll be alright.”

There’s just one person left in Poseidon 11’s crew that hasn’t spoken to mission control. Renjun can’t pretend anymore that he isn’t worried to the point of leaving fingernail indents on the table. He’s a second away from running out of here and conducting a rescue mission on his own if he doesn’t hear the voice he’s been waiting restlessly to hear. Space rescue missions are impossible but that will hardly stop Renjun if it means he gets to see-

“I’m fine too, Houston,” a tired, soft laugh penetrates through the comms. Renjun immediately pictures the warm smile that comes with it. “Hope you didn’t forget about me.”

Renjun lets out a weak breath at the familiar timbre of the voice, one that he’s gotten familiar with inside simulators, one that has told him to wait for him to return so that they can go on a mission together after he gets back. A voice he never knew he would miss until the possibility of it being lost in space comes down harshly onto him, drenching him to his bones like a furious downpour. 

Renjun falls back into his chair, legs losing all the strength to hold him up. Sungchan pats his shoulder but he brushes it away kindly and shakes his head to tell that he’s fine.

“Like we could ever forget you, Park. We’re glad all of you are safe. We’re all waiting for you to join us down here,” Donghyuck speaks.

“Give us 40 hours and we’ll be having drinks on you in no time, Flight.”

Donghyuck huffs out a breath. Tension eases in the room. People murmur more freely now. “Just don’t be late, Lee.”

“Renjun, how’s that re-entry procedure looking?” Jisung voices.

Renjun’s heart calms. “Just a couple of steps to take note of. It isn’t too much change from the manual you have. I tweaked it to take into account the faulty switches. You should be fine. I’ll walk you through it just before it’s time.”

“Thanks, Renjun. I’ll back you up when your craft goes rogue too.”

“Reassuring, Jisung.”

Jisung laughs. Renjun tries his hardest not to cry.

“Uh, Houston, we have a problem,” comes Chenle’s voice. ‘ _Fuck, Chenle. When did this happen?’ ‘_ I don’t know! Maybe the gauges are faulty?’ ‘ _What’s going on? Let me have a look.’ ‘_ There’s something wrong with the tanks!’ ‘ _How can that be?’_

People start looking at the screen again, relief short-lived as the voices of Poseidon 11’s crew overlap and get more hasty over the radio. Renjun’s breathing starts falling out of rhythm as unease settles in him once more and his stomach churns tight. Donghyuck stands distressingly at the eruption of frenzy they’re receiving on the other end. “Voyager, this is Houston. What’s happening? Can you give us a clear report?”

“Houston, we don’t know what’s going on but the oxygen from one of the O2 tanks in the service module is decreasing faster than the rest. We didn’t notice it earlier but looking at it now- it’s decreasing slowly but it’s not-”

The loud bang. 

The loud bang must have caused something. Renjun frantically grabs a pencil and paper. If their oxygen supply is running out faster than expected, they have to gauge whether it will be enough. He speaks through the radio. “Voyager, get me Jisung on the comms-”

“The loud crash,” Jisung’s voice cuts in, subdued and all too aware. 

Jisung has always been fast. 

Renjun swallows. “Jisung, listen to me. The loud crash, it could have caused a-”

“A leak,” Jisung finishes for him. He hears Jisung’s perplexed exhale.

Renjun tries to keep his hand steady as he does up the calculations but it shakes beyond his control. There’s no time if they’re losing oxygen. “I need your values. How much faster is it decreasing by?”

“It’s decreased by 7 PSI more than the other tanks in the last five minutes.”

It’s not detrimental but considering they’re expected to be in space for 40 more hours, it’s a risk. They might just have enough oxygen to crash through Earth’s atmosphere but even then it’s not a guarantee. It’s also based on the assumption that the rate of leak doesn’t accelerate. But assumptions aren’t a scientist’s best friend. If they want to play this safe, if they want to get the crew of Poseidon 11 home, they have to shut down some of the module’s operating powers to conserve oxygen for the crew and their re-entry back into Earth. The cut on power also means that the re-entry procedure that Renjun came up with is as useful as a doodle. They need a new plan, fast and nothing less than accurate. The new complications would require a drastically different procedure from the one in the manual Voyager has, and harder to come up with within a tight timeline.

“It’s a gamble, isn’t it?” Jisung asks quietly. From the way and tone he says it with, it’s clear that it’s not addressed to the whole room. It’s specifically to Renjun. He wants to hear the answer from Renjun.

Renjun’s chest hollows. Jisung has probably calculated everything out in his head. He has always been one of the bright ones during their training. Renjun doesn’t know what to tell him. There’s nothing for him to say that Jisung doesn’t already know. 

“Voyager, this is Houston,” Donghyuck punctuates clearly as he receives paper after paper from mission controllers. Renjun doesn’t think Donghyuck needs them to know what’s going to happen to Poseidon 11. Jisung has spoken enough for everyone to get an idea. Numbers don’t lie, but fear in a voice conveys honest vulnerability. “Voyager, rest assured. I already have a team assessing your situation and we’re doing our best to-”

“I’ll get you home, Jisung,” Renjun interrupts fervidly, his heart pounding hard. “I’ll get all of you home. I promise.”

A gentle exhale sounds over the radio. “I know you will.”

Renjun’s mind turns hazy but he’s up in a second and rushing out of the room with Sungchan immediately tailing behind. He throws all of the possible re-entry procedures they could try at Sungchan. He’s restless and his heart is beating a thousand beats a second but his legs don’t stop running. Sungchan rushes to keep up with him.

“Renjun. Renjun! I know! I’ll get everything powered up as quick as I can for you to try the steps out.” Sungchan runs up next to him and matches his pace. “You can do this. If anyone is going to bring them home, it's you. They’re depending on you.”

“I won’t lose him,” Renjun declares determinedly. He’ll get Jisung home. He’s not breaking his promise. 

**Author's Note:**

> hope this was a nice read! thanks for reading!


End file.
